A 16-year-old traveling alone for the first time had bad luck because he ended up at the wrong destination.
Frontier Airlines told NBC News and Scripps News in a statement that on Dec. 22, a 16-year-old passenger from Tampa, Florida, who was traveling to Cleveland, Ohio, “mistakenly” boarded a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The airlines noted that both flights departed from the same gate, but the flight from San Juan departed first.
The airline said the teenager was immediately flown back to Tampa and booked on a flight to his intended destination the next day, according to the outlets. Frontier Airlines also said it “sincerely apologizes to the family for the error.”
Frontier Airlines did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The first emergency services saved the family and the gifts after the car crashed into a ditch in Florida: ‘Christmas was saved!’
The teenager’s father, Ryan Lose, told NBC News that it was the first time his son Logan had boarded a plane alone and that he was nervous before the flight.
“He went over there and asked the lady if he was going to get on the flight and they said, ‘yes,’ and they also checked his bag to make sure it would fit,” Ryan told CNN. “But Logan said they never scanned his ticket. Logan said they just took one look at him and said, ‘Yeah, you’re on the right flight,’ and then he boarded.”
He told CNN he first suspected something was wrong after Logan’s mother called him to say Logan had already boarded around 8:30 p.m. — which was way too early. He said his 9-year-old son looked up the flight status and found that the plane to Puerto Rico had just taken off sometime around that time.
Ryan said he called his son trying to warn him he was on the wrong flight, but none of the calls went through. So he contacted Frontier Airlines, which informed him that they would alert the pilot to watch out for the teenager, according to CNN.
Passengers stuck in snow rescued after iPhone SOS feature alerts Colorado emergency responders
When Logan finally landed, he immediately texted his family about what had happened.
“I could feel the fear in the text messages. I could feel how scared he was,” Ryan told NBC News. “My heart sank pretty much at that point because there was nothing I could do.”
Logan took the same flight back to Tampa, landing around 3:30 a.m. and then hopping on a 7:45 a.m. flight to Cleveland, where he was supposed to spend Christmas with his mother, CNN and NBC News reported.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Ryan noted, “This whole ordeal has been stressful for everyone.”
Frontier Airlines told CNN that children over the age of 15 are allowed to fly alone and that it does not offer an “unaccompanied minor program,” in which a passenger under the age of 18 can travel with an escort.
The US Department of Transportation’s guidance on children flying alone notes that “many carriers require less unaccompanied procedures” if passengers are under 18 years of age.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education